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Let me start by saying the owners, Van and Deb, are great! They are super friendly and happy to make suggestions for things to do. Van was quick to correspond via email prior to our stay. The house was very clean, and my wife loved the floor to ceiling windows. We also loved the short, and non-strenuous hike to Roaring Fork Falls, which starts right across the street from the treehouse.

The sheets on the master bed were inside out, which was a little weird, but they seemed to be clean. We really appreciated the kitchenware and condiments, even though the condiments seemed to mostly be leftovers from previous guests (one bottle of horseradish sauce had expired long before our trip). With the exception of the soap, the toiletries were the same—seemingly leftover bottles from previous guests.

The caveats mentioned in the title don’t apply to everyone and are not necessarily the fault of the owners, but in full disclosure, future renters may want to be aware of the following, or the owners may want to consider making some updates to their properties page and amenities:

First of all, before making the trip, I emailed Van to ask if we should bring firewood to use with the advertised fire pit (I chop and season my own wood, so this wouldn’t have been a problem). He told me there was plenty of firewood for us to use, but when we got there, I found all the firewood to be too wet for use. Furthermore, the fire pit is just one of those small metal ones you can buy from Lowes (maybe a 2’ diameter), and the metal grate/spark protector was dented with holes rusted through it. To be fair, this is technically a fire pit, and I didn’t ask Van if he had dry firewood anywhere. Honestly, I did not feel like bothering him due to the next caveat about which I’m going to write.

TripAdvisor lists the property as Pets Allowed, and that is one of the main factors I took into consideration when renting this property. Our stay was from Friday to Sunday, and we were planning to go tubing on Saturday, which would require us to leave our dogs at the house. These plans had to be cancelled because when we came back from dinner Friday night, we found Van outside the property, seemingly upset because our dogs were barking. He told us we should have told him we were bringing pets, having pets entails a pet fee, and if we were leaving them at the house unattended, they would need to be crated.

This is completely understandable to me, but I’m not sure how I should have known this information. It is not stated anywhere on the TripAdvisor property page (at least it wasn’t when I booked the property), so I guess we were just supposed to know? Van said there isn’t a place to list this information on TripAdvisor, but I think it could easily be put into the properties description, or where additional fees are listed.

Anyway, having never used TripAdvisor, I was under the incorrect assumption that if a property is listed as Pets Allowed, with no indication about stipulations to the policy, we would be fine bringing our dogs and leaving them at the house for short periods of time, unattended and uncrated. If I had known about these unlisted requirements about pets before booking the property, I would have made other plans. To be fair, Van did not retroactively charge us a pet fee and the full deposit was returned.

Oh, and the mountain views listed in the amenities and shown in a least one picture are a bit dubious, at least in the summer with the foliage. The house is situated above a motel (also run by Van and Deb), and my idea of mountain views are not ones that can be seen from this property.

Again, these caveats may not be a problem for others. The views may be spectacular in the fall and winter, and they may have dry firewood then too. If you have pets and don’t mind crating them, make sure you let the owners know they are coming. My wife and I would definitely consider staying her again, but it would be with the knowledge we gained after our initial stay. In fact, I have already recommended the Tree House Cottage to a colleague of mine.

How easy was it to book the property?

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How easy was key pickup/access to the property?

Overall condition of the property

Bedding & mattresses

Kitchen & utensils

Bathroom cleanliness

Other facilities & amenities

Service

Liked best:The proximity of the property to wonderful hiking.

Liked least:The lack of description about the pet policy.

Traveling group:Spouse/Partner

Would you recommend this hotel to a friend?
Yes.

Recommended for:

Friends getaway

Older travelers

Families with young children

Would you recommend the location of this property?

Was it a good value for the price paid?

Did the property offer wi-fi/internet access?

Was your security deposit returned on time?

Was this review helpful? Yes

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.

Management Response

Sep 24, 2016

Hey Brandon, let me begin by thanking you for your very thorough and frank review. We appreciate that you would take so much time to point out some of the issues we need to work on for our guests as this helps us make staying at our cottages a more enjoyable experience.

That said, I'd like to respond to some of your "caveats" in as thorough a manner as you. To begin with, all our listings do have (and did at the time of your booking) a note indicating there is a pet fee and some common sense rules apply to bringing pets. It is the last thing listed at the end of the property description which, apparently, you may have not read all the way to. It is the only place we can mention it since TripAdvisor does not provide a place to list a pet fee even though they offer a check box to indicate the property is pet friendly. What I said to you was, there is no place to add a pet fee in the listing which is why we have the note at the end of the description. We have been doing this for over 3 years and learned early on that dogs tend to get anxiety when left alone in a strange place especially with lots of windows where they can see people and other animals walking by. I stopped at the cottage when I noticed, as I drove by, your dogs jumping at the windows because they heard and saw me driving by. I was alarmed both because I was surprised to see dogs in the cottage since you did not indicate you were bringing them and they were jumping at the windows which have vertical blinds from floor to ceiling and are very easily damaged by pets jumping at them especially from such large animals like your German Shepard and the other large dog whose breed I did not recognize. Regardless, you were not charged pet fees retroactively nor did we charge it to your deposit which you mentioned in your review - thank you.

The Tree house cottage is not "situated above a motel" as you imply which the pictures of the property will confirm. It is located on the same property as our lodge which we own and run but is separated by the same woods that make the cottage into a tree house.

Fire wood is huge contention for our local forest rangers since we are in the midst of a national forest. We provide free fire wood as a convenience to our guests and ask that you not bring any from outside the area due to the possibility of introducing invasive pests that attack our local fauna as has happened in the past where entire chestnut forests have disappeared in our area and we are now in a battle with a beetle that is decimating our hemlock tree population. Yes, the stock of wood you saw was wet from a week of rain but, as you yourself admit to not having inquired, had you asked, I would have pointed out the stack of wood under my car port that is kept dry for our guest’s use. As for the fire pit not meeting your high standards, all I can say is, no one has ever complained about it before. We’ve had many guests have a wonderful fire pit experience there without the slightest hint of disappointment. The spark protector cover has been damaged, is not really needed and has been discarded.

The description of the Tree House specifically states it is "surrounded" by trees and, although the trees do obscure the view of the mountains a bit, nothing was going to help your view that weekend since it was mostly cloudy and no one was able to see the mountains from anywhere in the valley. There is no ambiguity in the description of the Tree House and its surroundings and your characterization as “dubious’ is both unfair and inaccurate. I’m not certain there’s not much I can do to eliminate confusion by other potential guests in the future except to place a disclaimer under the picture in question stating “Not visible from cottage” which applies to all pictures of offsite views.

Expired horseradish – obviously an oversight on the part of our cleaning personnel. Please accept our sincerest apologies if it tasted bad or offended you in any way other than the date being expired. No doubt most everyone in America can probably find one or more items in their kitchen that has an expired date on it but this is no excuse for such abuse to our guests. We have removed the offending item and will include “label date inspection” in the list of things for our cleaning people to check regularly.

Yes – the ketchup, mustard, salad dressings & horseradish in the refrigerator are mostly left behind by other guests in addition to the ones we provide but they are in sealed bottles and are the same as you would find in a restaurant that does not provide a new bottle for every customer - it is standard practice to reuse condiments till the bottle is empty. I’ve even seen where restaurants combine used ketchups to maintain full bottles. Everything else left behind by previous guests we throw out or the cleaning people take since much of it is still palatable and would be a shame to waste. Waste not, want not.

You mention "the sheets on the master bed were inside out," is there a right or wrong way to turn the sheets?! You obviously would have preferred they were turned the other way. I’d be willing to bet there are forums on the internet where there is a raging debate about the issue but I don’t believe I’ve ever heard anyone complain about this – ever! As much as we would like everything to be perfect for our guests, we cannot be expected to discern which way our guests prefer the printed side of the sheet to face. Regardless, how the sheets are laid has no bearing on the comfort or cleanliness of the cottage. I will end this issue here.

The toiletries in question, which has to be the shampoo & conditioner since it is the only other toiletries we provide along with the soap are indeed old bottles but we use these instead of the bulk bottles which we buy for our guests and refill the smaller bottles from after every guest departs (a cost saving measure to keep our rates as low as possible). This is a free convenience we provide for guests that forget to bring theirs since most people have a preference and bring their own. We do hope this was not too terrible an inconvenience for you. I’m not certain there is anything we can do about this issue.

Once again, thank you for a most frank and very thorough review – I don’t think we have ever had anyone take the time you have to point out all the very minor issues we need to contend with and have obviously overlooked. Rest assured, we have taken steps to resolve all the issues you bring up in your review that we can. Your concerns are our concerns (to the extent they are valid and reasonable) since it is our deepest wish that every guest should have the best possible experience at our properties.

This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC.

I was not looking forward to staying in a dog friendly environment where other dogs marked their territory. BUT, I have to say you would have never known that dogs had stayed there before. The house was so clean and no odor of pass animals. I has a very enjoyable stay and will defiantly use flipkey again to book trips. Thank you Albert Inn for a wonderful weekend. Look forward to visiting again soon

How easy was it to book the property?

How helpful were the directions to the property?

How easy was key pickup/access to the property?

Overall condition of the property

Bedding & mattresses

Kitchen & utensils

Bathroom cleanliness

Service

Liked best:Kitchen was large and very clean

Traveling group:Spouse/Partner

Would you recommend this hotel to a friend?
Yes.

Recommended for:

Friends getaway

Families with young children

People with pets

Was the property as advertised?

Would you recommend the location of this property?

Was it a good value for the price paid?

Did the property offer wi-fi/internet access?

Was your security deposit returned on time?

Was this review helpful? Yes

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.

Management Response

Jun 1, 2016

Thank you Priscilla for choosing us. Our goal is to make you feel at home in a clean, comfortable and lovely setting.

This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC.